On May 18, 2015, Bloomberg News reported that the European Commission (EC) is planning to file an antitrust statement of objections against MasterCard for the company’s allegedly anticompetitive credit card policies. The statement of objections, which regulators may serve by July, would open another chapter in the history of antitrust challenges to credit card industry policies. The EC’s most recent investigation in 2013, for example, focused on allegedly excessive fees charged to travelers shopping in the European Union.
A new statement of objections by the EC would come only a few months after the Eastern District of New York found that American Express, one of MasterCard’s competitors, violated the Sherman Act. In U.S. v. American Express, the court found that American Express’ anti-steering rules—rules that allegedly prevented merchants from incentivizing or “steering” consumers to use cheaper credit cards—were anticompetitive under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The court in that case issued an injunction which, contrary to American Express’ rules, allowed merchants to steer customers away from using American Express cards, including by encouraging customers to use cards with cheaper fees for the merchant. Most recently, the court refused to stay its injunction while the parties appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
